


Parabatai

by alecmagnuslwb



Series: Shadowhunters Post Canon Stories [5]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Other, Post-Canon, but also i'm bi and incapable of writing clizzy without it turning out kind of gay, introspective angst outward fluff, listen this was supposed to be a parabatai fic and it is, no regrets about that, simon and jace are only here briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 04:06:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19822186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alecmagnuslwb/pseuds/alecmagnuslwb
Summary: It takes Isabelle nearly a year to even mention the word parabatai in Clary's presence, but once she finally does she lets it all spill out, heart on her sleeve.





	Parabatai

**Author's Note:**

> This turned out gayer than I planned like it’s impossible to write these two without it having romantic charge ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ No regrets about that fact tbh 😊

It takes a full year after Clary comes back to them for Isabelle to work up the courage to mention it. Things are still hazy when she first returns her memories coming back in slow waves and fragments, she remembers Jace first, then Luke and Simon. Izzy watches as Simon holds on so tight she worries Clary might pop, but then sees it’s nothing compared to the way Luke holds on and doesn’t let go for at least an hour.

She watches Clary remember what happened to her mother, a hard thing to witness once again. Eventually it all settles back in as if she’d never left. Soon enough they’re filling her in on everything she’s missed in the year she’s been gone and then it’s back to business as usual, now just with the bonus of Clary being home. 

They have their time, the friendship they had falling back into place easily, but they never so much as discuss their last one on one encounter. Clary had asked Isabelle to be her Parabatai and Isabelle had accepted. A Parabatai had always been something she never thought was for her, she had her brothers and needed no mystical bond to fight side by side with them. But with Clary it made sense, she saw the purpose of a Parabatai.

She still wants it, still wants that intrinsic bond with Clary but the silence on the topic in the past year has left her hesitant.

Tonight however is a good night, an easy double date night with Jace and Clary after a simple day at the Institute where nothing had blown up and the world hadn’t tried to end. She’s had a few glasses of wine and is just enough on the pleasant side of tipsy that her lips get a little loose and she just says it as they stand out on the small balcony of her and Simon’s apartment, the boys somewhere inside likely still bickering about whether that terrible superhero movie Simon made them watch was good or not.

“Do you not want to be Parabatai anymore?”

Clary looks a little stunned the glass of wine in her hand sloshing over a bit as she turns to look at Isabelle. She can’t quite read the expression outside of just shock at the casual, tipsy way she’s just dropped the question.

“Are you drunk?” she asks after a moment.

She is and she’s says just that, “A bit, but it doesn’t mean that I didn’t want to ask.”

Clary’s quiet for a moment the cool night breeze blowing her bangs across her forehead lightly. They were a cute new addition she’d developed in her year away from them all, Isabelle is glad she kept them. 

“Do _you_ still want to be Parabatai?” she finally asks after a few too many beats of silence.

Isabelle huffs, “That’s not an answer to my question.”

Clary sighs, “I know, I just, please?” She says it quietly like she’s afraid of Isabelle’s answer, when really it’s Isabelle who should be scared.

She turns for a moment as Jace and Simon get louder inside her lips quirking up with a small smile for a second as she watches Simon attempt to go in for a hug and Jace push him back fondly.

“Of course I do,” she breathes out looking back at Clary sitting her wine down on the balcony ledge. “I meant what I said when you asked, I truly did. But then you came back and I didn’t want to overwhelm you, it was already so much to have to be reintroduced to this all.” She turns again and pauses contemplating quietly if she should say the next part.

“And then after a while,” she continues looking Clary in the eyes with certainty. “I just thought you either didn’t remember or you just weren’t interested anymore after everything and didn’t want to hurt my feelings by saying it out loud.”

“Isabelle that’s not – “Clary begins, but Isabelle cuts her off a little nervously.

“Which it’s okay if that’s the case, I get it, no hard feelings, I can take it,” she shrugs casually, though deep down she knows it would hurt like hell if Clary rejected this.

Clary reaches out sitting her glass of wine next to Isabelle’s before placing a friendly hand on her shoulder with a look that says she knows exactly what it would do to Isabelle despite her casual attempts to shrug it off, “I still want to be Parabatai, really, I promise.”

“Yeah?” Isabelle asks hopeful and hesitant.

Clary smiles nodding her head eagerly, “Yeah. I guess I just got worried you didn’t want to be anymore. Once the memory of asking you came back you were just so busy and so focused in your new role as Institute Head, not going out in the field as much, and I figured you just wouldn’t really need a Parabatai anymore.”

Isabelle laughs, not at Clary, but at the concept of not wanting to have that bond with her simply because of a status change and less nights in dirty alleyways fighting acid spitting demons.

“As long as my Parabatai is going to be you I’ll always need one,” she says before pulling Clary into a tight hug. They hold onto each other for a long while, before finally pulling back with wide smiles on both of their faces.

“So,” Clary says holding out her right arm. “Parabatai?”

Isabelle’s smile brightens even more as she reaches out her left arm fingers clasping around Clary’s forearm tightly as she does the same to her. A firm and lasting hold like the bond they’re agreeing to share.

“Parabatai.”

A week later in the presence of their entire family and presided over by Jem, Isabelle after years of insisting she didn’t need one, that she was better off a warrior alone, a sister of support, gets her Parabatai, her best friend. She and Clary tied in battle and all else till the very end.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr: [alecmagnuslwb](https://alecmagnuslwb.tumblr.com/)


End file.
